Muriel Spark's novels to be republished on centenary

Polygon, an imprint of Scottish independent publisher Birlinn, is to republish all 22 of Dame Muriel Spark's novels to mark the 100th anniversary of her birth.

The centenary of Spark’s birth will be on 1st February 2018 after she died on 15th April 2006, aged 88.

Each of the 22 novels will be published in a "striking" and collectable hardback centenary edition, carrying a series preface by editor Alan Taylor and an introduction by writers or critics including Ali Smith, William Boyd, Alexander McCall Smith, Candia McWilliam, James Wood, Andrew O’Hagan, Joseph Kanon, Zoe Strachan, Allan Massie, Kapka Kassabova, Dan Gunn and Richard Holloway.

The first four novels – The Comforters, Robinson, Memento Mori, and The Ballad of Peckham Rye – will be published in November 2017. A Far Cry From Kensington will be released early in January, with the next four – The Bachelors, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The Girls of Slender Means, The Mandelbaum Gate – on the anniversary itself, 1st February 2018. The remainder will be published over the course of the following six months, finishing in September 2018.

Polygon will also publish Appointment in Arezzo: A Friendship with Muriel Spark by Alan Taylor in November 2017 – an "intimate" memoir of time spent with Muriel. Full of anecdotes and indiscretions, this book charts the course of Muriel Spark’s life revealing her as she really was – a funny, charming, intelligent and warm-hearted woman, said the publisher.

In further activity to mark the 100th anniversary of Spark's death, the National Library of Scotland and Creative Scotland is holding a range of literary and cultural events, including a major exhibition, an international academic conference at the University of Glasgow, two BBC documentaries and plans to publish new editions of her work.